India’s Kush Maini recalls journey from PlayStation gaming to clinching F2 sprint race in Monaco; hopes Saturday’s win will spark off more glory
Kush Maini with the Monaco sprint race trophy on Saturday. Pic/Getty Images
Kush Maini became the first Indian to win a Formula 2 (F2) race at the iconic Monaco street circuit. The DAMS driver started on pole for the sprint race and crossed the chequered flag in first place, ahead of Prema Racing’s Gabriele Mini. “As a young kid from India, playing F1 on a PlayStation, I never thought I’d be here and winning in the second tier. So, really grateful to the team. We’ve had a very rocky start, with a lot of things going wrong, but our season starts today and there’s still a long way to go for us, so this is a positive note to take forwards,” said an ecstatic Maini at the post-race press conference on Saturday.
Bad brakes, no problem
Reflecting on his performance, the 24-year-old revealed that he was struggling with his brakes, but kept his focus on simply staying ahead, on what is one of the toughest circuits to overtake on. “Yeah, I think I was just doing my race really. I was struggling a bit with front locking and one of my brakes fell asleep, so it was just not about going for the quickest lap this race, but about being consistent, and not making mistakes and just controlling the race, which I feel we did. Obviously, Gabriele was very fast, and it was nice to keep him behind,” said Maini.
Sixth in feature race
However, the Indian racer could not replicate his heroics in Sunday’s feature race as he finished sixth. Nevertheless, his team still had cause for celebration as Maini’s American teammate, Jak Crawford, emerged victorious. Maini, an academy driver for Alpine’s F1 team, had already tasted victory in the F2 category in 2024 when he won the sprint race in Hungary with Invicta Racing.
The Indian is currently 12th in the world championship standings with 15 points. His only prior points-scoring finish before this weekend was in Saudi Arabia where he scored a solitary point in the feature race by finishing 10th. This is Maini’s third season in F2. He’s won twice and picked up six podiums in 64 races so far, across three seasons. His brother, Arjun Maini, has also competed in F2.
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